Malum Discordiae (Tennebrose, #1)

by Ashlyn Drewek

I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to find the—” “Folios. Yes. I know.” He made an exasperated growling sound. “We’ll find the damn folios!

This really was happening. With a guy whose name I’d learned like twenty minutes ago. I tried not to overanalyze it but it was still hard to wrap my head around, even as he massaged the underside of my shaft with his tongue.

“Oh my God… Fuck!” I thrust into his mouth, burying myself all the way. His fingers dug into my ass, pulling me in, holding me there while my orgasm unloaded down the back of his throat, pulse after pulse. The tingling hadn’t stopped, even after he wrung every fucking drop out of me. What the hell was that about? Jesus… I made a mental note to look into it later when some of the blood flow returned to my brain.

For the rest of the night, I joked and acted like I wasn’t guzzling beer to try and get the taste of Cassius out of my mouth. The taste I eventually overcame, but the feeling? That would never go away. Sucking the dick of the enemy. I’d done a lot of shit I wasn’t proud of over the nineteen years of my life, but I’d never stooped that low. What the fuck was wrong with me?!

If it was possible, he might have been even hotter when he was angry. God, I fucking hated him.

Swearing under my breath, I hoped for two things: one, that no one saw; and two, that Cassius Corbin was fucking dead.

My smirk spread into a full-fledged smile. The only answer I gave him was laughter, like the villain he wanted me to be.

I didn’t know what his middle name was, but from the moment I learned who he was, that was the only thing I could call him — Cassius fucking Corbin.

The crowd shifted and I finally saw the dead girl’s face. Her eyes were empty sockets, blood splattered everywhere. But even more disturbing was the fact her head was lying a full foot above her shoulders.

“Why would I talk to him?” I threw my hands up, all but scraping the bottom of the patience barrel. “He’s the son of a killer.” Just like me — the parallel of which was not lost on me.

It’s not like I wanted to come home and gush to either of them about how dreamy Cassius was. Dark hair, blue eyes, pale skin. Cheekbones that could cut fucking glass. As much as I hated to admit it, and despite the fact he was a Corbin, he was still fucking hot. But neither of my parents needed to know my feelings on that — or the fact we’d already had two duels and it was only the second week of class.

“Allow me.” Graeme met my glare with a smug smile and continued lighting each candle with a flick of his fingers and the tiny blue sparks. Show off.

I actually wished him luck in his endeavor to figure this whole mess out, because I had no fucking clue. The mission to find my family’s folios was officially on the back burner until I could get this new mess sorted out. I just hoped Graeme Hewitt stayed the hell out of my way.

“Yep.” I made sure the ‘p’ popped for effect.

But this was what happened any time I was within fifty feet of Cassius Corbin — another side of me came out I never knew existed. It was feral and unpredictable. More than anything, it was dangerous.

Now that I was home, I shoved Graeme Hewitt to the back of my mind and focused on something far more important — what the dead girl told me.

I knew I saw Graeme when I pulled in. He was hard to miss without a fucking shirt on. So where was he?

He was beyond infuriating but he also made me feel things I shouldn’t want to feel. I didn’t know if I was coming or going when it came to him.

This was one of my worst decisions ever. Right behind giving my mortal enemy a blowjob.

“You do this shit for fun?” “When I’m not harvesting organs and snatching unsuspecting children from their beds.”

“When I’m not harvesting organs and snatching unsuspecting children from their beds.”

Those burgundy pants were so goddamn tight you could bounce a quarter off his ass. Sadly, there was no conceivable way to tell him not to change, so I’d just have to enjoy every second of watching him walk away.

“It’s the poison garden,” I replied, prepared for the onslaught of snide comments. “Feel free to taste, touch, and smell whatever you’d like in there.”

Why did he have to be so goddamn attractive? He was like a snake in the garden — his beauty lured you in, then a fucking viper leapt out when you least expected it.

“I’m not hard up for anything, you idiot. Least of all you.” Except my own hard-on obliterated that defense. I couldn’t even think straight when he was around. My head hated him for a thousand reasons, but there was a want in my blood I couldn’t deny. It had been there since Preston’s party — the first time he touched me, smiled at me. And, of course, kissed me. “Then why is your dick so hard, baby?” he asked, reaching for my belt buckle.

“Nothing gets me going like a smart-mouth prick who looks down on everyone and everything.”

God, I hated him. I hated what he was doing. I hated that I felt like I was going to come undone at any second and his dick wasn’t even inside me yet. I hated that the best sex of my fucking life was with Graeme fucking Hewitt.

“Fuck you,” I snapped a moment before he thrust in again. “No, baby. Fuck you.”

“Say it,” he growled, his teeth grazing the side of my neck. “I want you to acknowledge who’s fucking you right now.” “No.” In all honesty, I would have called him whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t stop. But I had to at least try and hang on to a shred of dignity. The hand that was still holding my hip came up and grabbed the back of my neck, shoving my face against the wall and pinning me in place while he fucked me harder. “Fucking say it, Cash. Whose cock is buried so deep in your ass you can’t stand it?” “Graeme,” I blurted out, squeezing my eyes shut as my body hurtled toward release. “It’s Graeme! Fuck me, it’s Graeme!”

“Fuck me,” Graeme panted, his warm breath caressing the back of my neck. “That was hot.“ It was. Hot and fulfilling and fucking wrong. Graeme was everything I shouldn’t want in one giant, peculiar-eyed package.

Graeme took a step forward, his chin tipped up. “Then why wait? Why not get it over with now?” I gave him a once-over and took a purposeful step back, away from the temptation presented by his still-naked body. Um, his vulnerability. The vulnerability of him being naked. That’s what I meant. “You’re not worth the effort.” “Fuck you, Cash.” His voice wavered at the end and he swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple betraying the movement. “Unfortunately for you, it was a one-time thing. Remember?” With a smirk, I pivoted on my heel and stormed off.

“Because last night you apparently risked your life going over there to get answers for me. And while I watched you sleep, wondering if you were going to wake up again, I didn’t see a fucking monster, Cash. I saw you.”

He leaned up and grabbed me by the back of the head, yanking me close. As soon as I realized what he was doing, he pressed his lips to mine. A rush of warmth swept through me, along with a thousand more tingling sensations. By the time my brain managed to come up with a coherent thought, he was gone, climbing down the lattice as if he’d been doing it his whole life. Landing on his feet softly, he looked up, giving me a wry grin, before darting off toward the gardens. I closed my eyes and expelled a sharp breath. He was so goddamn annoying! And yet, I couldn’t help the stupid little flutter in my stomach.

Personality aside, he was fucking perfect. The long, hard lines of his body melded with mine, like two puzzle pieces coming together.

He pushed against my chest, his fingers curling in the fabric of my maroon henley. “It’s not happening, baby, so go bark up another tree.” “I like this tree.” I backed him into the towering bookshelf and pinned him in place. I really liked this tree. For some stupid, inexplicable reason, Cassius was all I could think about these days. And whenever he was near me, all I wanted to do was touch him.

And there I stood — dick out, pants undone, chest heaving, watching the boy of my dreams step over the pile of books and turn the corner like he didn’t just come in and wreck my fucking world.

The entire way across campus, I cursed myself for being such a fucking idiot, for thinking Graeme Hewitt was anything but a manipulative piece of shit. When the rain started to fall, chilling me to the bone, I hated him all the more. Him and his fucking magic.

My brain is confused. All I know is that you are all I can think about these days. You’re driving me crazy, Cash. It’s like nothing in the world makes sense until you come around, then everything feels… right.”

Even through our jeans, his dick commanded attention, rubbing against mine until we were both sighing and whining for more. Little sparks of warmth flickered across my skin wherever he touched me. I didn’t know if it was his magic, or just him, drawing feelings out of me that he shouldn’t have been able to reach. “Fuck, Cash. I have to have you.” I shook my head despite the fact I palmed his cock, stroking him through the denim. “No.” “Baby, please.”

How could he be so annoying and so sexy at the same time? It made my brain hurt.

I didn’t let him enjoy it too long since I didn’t want him coming on my hand. I wanted to be buried inside of him, to experience every bit of his orgasm from the inside out.

No matter what happened after this, in this moment Graeme Hewitt was mine.

Underneath that perfect Hewitt exterior, he was a dirty bird with a wild side that had been beaten into submission over the years.

“Pulvis et umbra sumus,” he replied with a tight smile. “‘We are dust and shadow.’ From dust we came, and to dust we shall return. You see it as a barbaric custom. We see it as a natural part of life. Everything dies. Some of us just die first.”

“You said you’ve already accepted death,” I said quietly, sliding my fingers into his dark hair and angling his face up toward my mouth. “So what are you afraid of?” His gaze burned into mine, so much that I swore he was using lightning against me. Tiny sparks danced over my skin as he ran his hands up my abs, around my ribs, and up my back. “You.” A slow smile spread over my lips as he pulled me closer. “Good.” “Why do you say that?” “Because you terrify me.”

We rushed toward one another, our mouths crashing against the other’s. Even as the air dissipated from my lungs, I didn’t pull away. In this new, confusing world, I didn’t need oxygen anymore as long as I had Cassius. I took him, greedily, and I’d keep taking him as long as he let me.

I couldn’t tell if he was pissed because he was literally stuck with me or if he was trying to come up with some sort of solution. He always looked like he was scheming, so it was hard to tell.

“Can’t you ask him to break it, or whatever? Take it down?” “Yeah. Sure. ‘Hey, Dad, can you lower the ward so the son of our arch-enemy can leave? What’s he doing here in the first place? Oh, you know… we just spent the whole night taking turns fucking each other. No big deal, right?’” Crossing my arms, I rolled my eyes. Fucking smart ass. “Well, when you put it like that, I can see where it’s a problem.”

“If you see the beauty in death, you won’t be so creeped out by it. Not to get all Lion King on you, but it really is about the circle of life. The dead have a lot to teach the living, the living just don’t want anything to do with it.”

The Kellermann family weren’t witches, per se, but they’d been around long enough to have gotten the clue the supernatural existed. If the chief of police came to them in the middle of the night with a decapitated coed and told them to keep quiet, they probably didn’t even blink an eye. It was, after all, just another day in Winslow, Massachusetts, where strange deaths and urban legends ran rampant.